Accor has built the world's largest hotel network and become the world leader in business services. Service Vouchers, Travel Agencies, Car Rental, Upscale Hotels, Leisure Hotels, Budget Hotels? Accor federates a group of closely related activities, all dedicated to enhancing the quality of services.

Several years ago the Accor group committed itself to respecting the environment. The environmental policy of the group is implemented through:

1. Constant action at operational level and in the area of research and surveysHOTELS - a specific Environment Charter was drawn up in 1998 and applied to all the European hotels in the group. The charter covers waste management and recycling, technical controls, architecture and landscape and awareness and training. The charter was extended to Australasia in January 1999.CAR HIRE - Europcar now hires out 1,000 LPG vehicles. The group has also taken an important lead in the use of electric vehicles in a partnership arrangement with EDF, the national electricity company of France. Thirty hotel car parks are now equipped with battery recharging terminals and an electric vehicle is available to transport staff between head office sites.

2. Partnerships with companies, associations and public services
Accor is a global pioneer in the approach it adopted to tourism. Accor is a founder member of Green Globe and the International Hotels Environment Initiative. It is also a partner of Orée a non-profit making association whose mission is to encourage partnerships between companies and local authorities by developing tools designed to integrate environmental concerns into everyday business operations.

3. Specific training courses provided for the group's employeesEMPLOYEES - the Environment Department have been educating staff from the early stages of the Group's environmental programme. The awareness raising has been centred around a comic strip - initially called He who sorts last, sorts best. Its success was immediate and went far beyond the framework of corporate communication - it won a prize at the International Comic Strip Festival of Angoulême in 1996.HOTEL MANAGERS - each hotel receives an 'Environment guide for hotel managers' training manual to help implement the Environmental Charter. Twice a year the hotel manager reports on their environmental progress to their regional manager who in turn send an assessment of the situation to the country manager. This ensures all hotel staff take responsibility for their environmental programme.